STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And now let's bring Ambassador William Taylor back to the conversation. He has served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations - has been involved in some historic events. Ambassador, welcome back.
WILLIAM TAYLOR: Thank you, Steve. Good to be here.
INSKEEP: So what do you make of this Russian announcement? Is this something you would take seriously?
TAYLOR: If the Russians are serious, Steve, then we should take it seriously. It's not clear they are. So far, every proposal for a ceasefire has been met with the same Russian response - no. And this may be different. However, as Joanna just pointed out, these three-way talks at the technical level were going on six months ago. And there were some progress at the technical level on, for example, how to monitor a ceasefire.
And Ukrainians and Russians and Americans got together, and the technical experts were able to come up with some good ideas about how to monitor a ceasefire. The problem, of course, is Putin doesn't want a ceasefire. So they can start these technical discussions again three ways. That's a good thing. However, the main problem remains, and that is Putin's opposition to ending this war.
INSKEEP: And I guess we should just be clear. The idea on the table is everyone stops shooting where they are. Nobody admits that anybody has conquered territory. The idea is just to stop shooting. And you're saying the political will on the Russian side just isn't there.
TAYLOR: It's just not there. They've opposed that. Steve, they've been very clear. Putin's been very clear about what he wants. He wants to dominate - eliminate Ukraine. He doesn't think Ukraine really exists - it's not a real nation. So he's been very clear that his strategy is to wait us out. And waiting us out, waiting out the Europeans, the Ukrainians, the Americans, means no ceasefire. He keeps grinding.
INSKEEP: He did, however, release Stephen Hubbard, this seemingly friendly gesture toward the United States. Do you see it as a friendly move?
TAYLOR: I see it as manipulation again. I mean, it's a good thing that the Russians have let this man go. He was wrongfully imprisoned. So it's a good thing that he can come home to his family. That's a very good thing. The Russians took him, and the Russians can take others if they think they can get something for it. But for Steve Witkoff to say that because the Russians let this man go, that Putin is humanitarian. I agree with the Ukrainian legislature - I cringed when I heard that.
INSKEEP: So your analysis of President Putin is that, fundamentally, I mean, he feints to the right, he feints to the left. He makes a gesture, but fundamentally, he believes the same thing as he did years ago, which is that Ukraine ought to belong to Russia, and he hasn't changed. Would you say that's also true of President Trump - periodically, the United States gets a little tough on Russia and then reverts to saying that, you know, Russia has the edge. Russia is the bigger country, and Ukraine ought to deal with them?
TAYLOR: And President Trump says that almost every time he has a conversation with President Putin, Putin will get on the phone with Trump, give him the story, give him the line from the Russians, exactly what you just described, and President Trump comes out and says the same thing. It turns out that it's not that way. The Ukrainians have stopped the Russians on the battlefield. The Ukrainians have stopped this Russian army. They're a small army, the Ukrainians, but they've used technology to stop the Russians on the battlefield.
And you never hear Trump say that because Putin tells them, oh, we're grinding over the Ukrainians. It's inevitable that we will win. So no, this is not reality, and the stalemate is on the ground. Now, it is true that the Russians have the ability to hit the Ukrainians with ballistic missiles at will because the Ukrainians don't have the ability any longer to knock them down. The Patriot missiles that are useful for that are no longer there.
INSKEEP: We've heard mixed signals and mixed messages, anyway, about why it is that the Ukrainians are suddenly short of Patriot missiles and why there seem to be delays in delivering weapons that the Ukrainians seem to have paid for, and why even there was a brief interruption in Starlink service. Do you feel you understand why the Trump administration is doing these things and whether they're deliberate?
TAYLOR: You have to believe they're deliberate, Steve. They're all happening at the same time. The Starlink, the military intelligence stopped at the same time, restricted at the same time. After some indication from Russian officials to Ukrainian officials that this was going to happen. And you hear that the supply of Patriots, which are, as you said, paid for by the Europeans to be provided to the Ukrainians, stalled, stopped on Secretary of Defense Hegseth's death. He's - desk. He's holding that up. They're all happening at the same time. I don't believe that Elon Musk would have slowed down Starlink and Starshield without talking to the president.
INSKEEP: Interesting, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, says there's nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine, but then says it's simply a balance between our obligations to other partners and our own standards, then suggesting maybe the U.S. is doing - knows what it's doing here.
TAYLOR: The U.S. does know what it's doing. It's slowing it down, and that is causing real pain. It's causing Ukrainians to die. Let's be clear.
INSKEEP: And we'll end it on that note. Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, thanks so much.
TAYLOR: Thank you, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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